


B. Summers

by Eowyn315



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dead Like Me
Genre: Character Study, Drabble Sequence, Gen, Season/Series 01, Season/Series 05
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-08-09
Updated: 2011-08-09
Packaged: 2017-10-22 10:56:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/237331
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eowyn315/pseuds/Eowyn315
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Grim Reapers work under a certain set of rules. But they’ve never met Buffy Summers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	B. Summers

Sunnydale is a weird gig for a Reaper.

It’s a lot busier, for one thing, especially if you’re in External Influences. Our reap tally makes other towns look about as active as the Plague division.

There’s also the strange prevalence of, uh, _supernatural_ causes of death. I mean, Reapers are undead, too, so it’s not a huge stretch to believe in things like vampires and demons. It’s just that it seems to happen a lot more often here than other places, you know?

But the weirdest thing I’ve ever encountered in Sunnydale is the girl I had to reap twice.

*****

The first time I get the assignment, the instructions seem a little strange. _B. Summers_ , it says. _Underneath Sunnydale High School, ETD 9:53 pm._

 _Underneath_ the high school?

Puzzled, I show up at the appointed time. No gravelings around, but a teenage girl emerges from the school, wearing a prom dress and a leather jacket. Before I can find out if she’s B. Summers, a little kid appears, and for a minute I wonder if there’s been a mix-up, if he’s a Reaper, too. Otherwise why would a kid be out at this time of night? Especially in this town.

*****

He doesn’t reap her.

Instead, the little boy takes her hand, leading her somewhere. To her death, probably, but I’ve never seen an agent of Death look like that before. There’s something strange about the whole thing that makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

“Excuse me!” I call out before they can get too far. The girl turns to look at me. “Um, could you tell me how to get to Filbert Street?”

She narrows her eyes and says, “Two blocks that way,” gesturing with her crossbow.

“Thanks,” I reply. “Hey, don’t I know you?”

*****

The trick to reaping, of course, is that you have to get close enough to touch the person in order to take their soul. People tend to get suspicious when strangers just come up and grope them, so a little finesse is required.

“You go to school here, right?” I take a guess. “Summers…?”

“Buffy,” she responds warily, glancing down at the boy, who looks impatient. “I’m sorry, I can’t stay -”

“Sure.” I touch her arm, releasing her soul. She blinks. “Thanks again.”

“Be careful,” she says. “It’s not safe to be out at night.”

Don’t I know it.

*****

The second time I get her name, I’m _really_ confused. “But I already reaped this girl!” I exclaim. “Four years ago.”

“Maybe there’s another B. Summers,” my boss says.

Right. Why didn’t I think of that?

But when I get to the location – a sketchy construction site that’s crawling with zombie-like people in their pajamas and creepy little hobbit demons building a rickety-looking tower (obviously cause of death, don’t need to be a Reaper to spot that one) – there she is. Two of her, actually, but one of them turns out to be a robot.

Things just keeps getting weirder.

*****

Nobody ever said anything about reaps coming back from the dead. It just doesn’t happen. There are rules. Yet here she is.

Maybe it’s my fault. Maybe I didn’t reap her properly. I didn’t exactly stick around to make sure her soul found its lights. But somehow I know there’s something bigger at work here. The whole thing fills me with unease.

I suppose I’ll never know how or why it happened. Cosmic screw-up, maybe. There’s no time to marvel at her continued existence; it’s now or never. I reach out to touch her as she sprints toward the tower.

*****

In retrospect, maybe not a good idea to grab someone from the shadows in the middle of a battle.

“Hey!” she cries, kicking me without stopping or even looking in my direction. I get a couple broken ribs for my trouble, but still manage to pop her soul. Good thing Reapers heal fast.

As she fights her way up the tower, I hear her friends talking worriedly about someone else – a girl at the top, in danger. They think she’s the one who’s going to die, but I know the truth.

B. Summers is about to break all the rules.


End file.
